


Saviour

by itshyuckified



Category: NCT (Band), NCT 127 - Fandom, NCT Dream, WAYV
Genre: A LOT of Angst, A lot of secrets, M/M, a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings of guilt, a lot of hiding, a lot of mistrust, a lot of need for revenge, being scared, coming to terms of who you are, hyuck is going through a lot after turning, hyuck is oblivious to a lot, hyuck is scared and mark comforts him a lot, hyuck isn't aware, johnny and jaehyun are not as innocent as they look, making the best of the situation at hand, mark helps hyuck but not in the right way, mark is hiding a lot of secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itshyuckified/pseuds/itshyuckified
Summary: In which Mark, an as innocent-as-they-come vampire loses control one night and bites an unsuspecting boy named Donghyuck. When Donghyuck comes back to consciousness, he's scared and unaware of what is happening to him. Mark vows to himself to correct his mistake, trying to numb his guilt by helping Donghyuck adapt to his new life and helping the boy find out who bit him.Mark doesn't know whats worse; that Donghyuck becomes such an important part of his life in such a short span of time, or the fact he still hasn't told Donghyuck that he was the one who bit him.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 11
Kudos: 36





	1. Quench

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for checking out my story! I hope you like it and I hope you enjoy ~  
> find me on twitter: hyuckified

Mark was thirsty. 

So goddamn thirsty. 

He was used to controlling his thirst. In fact, he wasn’t sure of a time since he turned where he ever lost complete control. He usually knew his limits and never dared to push them; afraid of what lurked behind his bloodlust, the creature he might become. He promised himself that he would be in control of the monster that lived inside him; rather than have it control him. He’s seen what giving up control has done to others and couldn’t bear the thought of it happening to him.

Although Mark classified himself as a normally resilient individual, he did come across moments where he felt the once strong walls of determination and power slightly cave. He knew it was useless to pretend to be perfect and one-hundred percent in control of his emotions, but he liked to think he was. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that the twenty-year old felt like he wanted something more. 

“You’re not gonna make it till tomorrow, will you?” Mark’s head shot up at the voice that rang through his ears. He knew who it belonged to all too well; and his overwhelming urge to feed was replaced with one of pure rage. It belonged to his older brother, Johnny. “You seem a bit frail, Mark.” 

“Shut the fuck up.” Mark snarled, trying to get up from his slumped position on the tiled floor. Unsurprisingly, he failed; causing Johnny to scoff in what seemed to be disgust as Mark slid back to the floor. Mark was able to tell that his brother was clearly mocking him. Johnny and Mark had never been on good terms, especially when Mark first turned. Johnny practically left him immobile after he found out that his brother had willingly decided to leave his mortality behind him. Ever since that moment they were never truly the same, relationship-wise. 

“I would ask if you’d like to fight me, but I think we both know that right now you’re much too weak to really pack a punch, isn’t that right?” Johnny smiled, bending down to the floor, hovering over his younger brother. Though, on normal terms Mark would have jumped at the opportunity to punch his brother in the face, he didn’t have the energy to follow through. Perhaps it was the weakness he felt because of the overwhelming feeling of hunger that was taking over each sense as time passed. “Isn’t this ironic? You wanted this Mark, you wanted to be part of this life. Yet you let it consume you, and look where you are now. Pathetic.” 

“Bullshit.” Mark barely managed to get the word out, voice cracking. His mind immediately filled with an incredible sense of dizziness, knocking his attempt to stand up down. His back scraped the brick wall behind him once more. Mark was unable to get up off the ground, and he was beginning to feel both frustrated and worried. He was not used to feeling this way; usually he was able to quench his thirst before the High hit him too bad, but today was unlike any other. Not only did his head feel like it was about to pop off, but it felt like his fangs were on fire, a feeling once foreign to him. “I’ll be fine, I always am. I’ve got my own way of doing things.”

Johnny actually let out a loud laugh, one that shocked Mark’s ears and snapped him out of his daze. “You’ve got to be kidding me Mark. Is now the time for you to be all high and mighty? You need to feed, yet you refuse to feed on humans. How do you expect to survive?” Johnny placed his hands on the wall that Mark was laying against, blocking him in with his arms, almost forming a prison where Mark remained captive. He whispered ever so slightly, only so the younger boy could barely hear him: “We were literally made for feeding on humans. There’s no such thing as a vegan vampire, Mark. Sooner or later, you’re gonna crack. I’d hate to be the human that will be in your way when you finally realize.”

“Fuck off.” Mark sneered, pushing the arms of his older brother away with the little strength he had left. He bit down on his lip in hopes for the intense heat coming from his fangs to subside, but it consequently just made them worse. “If you’re not going to be helpful, get the fuck out of my way. Jeno brought me some bottles, I need to get them out of the fridge.”

It was true that Mark refused to feed on humans. He made it his personal rule to stand by after he’d turned and never had he broken it. To be fair, he’s also never felt quite this hungry; but he knew that once he fed on a human, the animal blood he was used to wasn’t going to be able to suffice his hunger anymore. Then, he really wouldn’t know what to do with himself. No matter how hard it was going to be for the younger, he was never going to stoop as low as his older brother and feed on unknowing people. 

“You’re in your High.” Johnny sighed, running a hand through his hair, clearly conflicted with emotions of anger and responsibility over Mark. Although the two brothers were constantly on the brink of fighting, it was no secret that Johnny felt as if he was responsible for his younger brother. “You know that shit comes once every three years, and it's always going to be more intense than the last. You need human blood, or else the hunger won’t go away and then you’re really fucked. You’ve seen what’s happened to Jungwoo… Man’s never recovered. Just do it once, and then you won’t have to worry about humans for another three years. Hell, it’ll be our little secret, little bro.”

“First of all, it’s Mark. Second of all, stop acting like you give a shit about my morals. Just get me a bottle of blood from the fridge and stop being fucking annoying.” Mark snapped, pulling himself up with all the force that he’d garnered through the anger pumping in his veins. Mark didn’t lie to himself; there were times that he really questioned whether a human-free diet was anything to be proud of, or if it was even worth it. He was meant to hunt on humans. He was meant to feed on them. So why did he feel bad doing so? His older brother didn’t even bat an eye when it came to feeding on one, but Mark couldn’t help but have felt incredibly guilty every time he even thought about feeding. Maybe it was due to the fact that Mark remembered his human days or maybe it had to do with the fact that he longed to remain in touch with the most amount of normality possible. 

“I don’t even understand how you can even drink that blood.” Johnny murmured under his breath, walking to the fridge of their shared apartment. He pulled out another plastic bottle and tossed it to Mark. “Animal blood tastes fucking vile, and nowhere near as satisfying as the real thing. Human blood will always taste so much better, that’s just a fact.” There was a gleam in his eye when he thought of human blood, and Mark oddly found it extremely disturbing, even though Mark had those cravings sometimes too. 

“What’s so satisfying? Is it the screams of innocent people when you feed on them or do you like to see them drop to the floor when you’re done? When you’ve used them up for your purpose?” 

“Everyone look out, we have a human apologist!” Johnny mocked, raising both his hands in offence, a smile widening across his face. Johnny clearly didn’t understand the moralities of his younger brother, and perhaps Mark had a slight chip on his shoulder towards him for it. “I’ll never understand what goes on in your mind, Mark. You do realize that we are not half as bad as humans are, right? Humans are garbage, and should be treated as such.”

“When you feed on a human, you turn them into one of us, right?” Mark questioned his brother, barely getting the words out as he drank the bottle filled with the metallic liquid with desperation, throwing it to the ground as it became empty. Johnny looked confused, but nodded his head as he tossed Mark another bottle for him to drink; he downed it within seconds, wiping the red blood as some of it dripped down his chin. 

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious.” 

“What do you do with them after you feed?” Mark asked. He had to admit, the blood wasn’t all that delicious, but it got the job done. Of course, he would never admit that to his brother since he would not have heard the end of it. He walked to the fridge to get another bottle— his hunger hadn't subsided yet. For every amount needed to quench thirst through a human, it was practically doubled for animal blood; yet the blood he was drinking didn’t seem to be enough. It was almost as if the more animal blood he drank, the more weak he became. 

“Uh, I get the fuck out of there as fast as I can Mark... I’m actually slightly concerned that you don’t know these things. I taught you all of this right when you turned. You’re not supposed to hang around your feeding zone… That’s like rule number one.”

“You’re missing the point, Johnny. The people you feed on are human. Then suddenly, they’re not. They become a newborn and you leave them there to die of newfound thirst since they don’t know what’s going on nor what’s happening to them. It’s rude to just take what you want, then leave not caring what’ll happen..”

“Are you seriously suggesting I do aftercare for a human I’ve just fed on? I barely even do that for my boyfriend, zero fucking chance I’ll do it on those fucking animals.” Johnny scoffed, clearly not interested in how this conversation was going. Johnny has always gotten super offended when Mark brought up humans, leaving any conversation to fizzle out angrily before going anywhere else. 

“Well, instead of just leaving them dropped on the cement, why don’t you teach them how to live as a vampire?” Mark asked, slightly because he was curious for the answer and slightly because he wanted to piss him off. Johnny looked at his brother like he had officially gone crazy; eyes widening and another chuckle escaping his lips in disbelief. 

“You’ve officially lost it.” Johnny whispered. “Do you hear yourself? Why the fuck would you want anything to do with a new vampire? If they can’t survive their first feed, they’re useless anyways.”

Before Mark was able to respond at yet another insult directed towards humans, there was a knock on the door. He scrunched his eyebrows, and looked over at the time displayed on his phone. The screen read three-thirty in the morning. 

“Who’s that?” Mark asked, confused, still slightly dazed from the lack of blood in his system. He personally wasn’t expecting anyone, especially at this hour. It was weird, though. Mark had a hard time putting a finger on the scent of the being behind the door. Normally, he knew who it was as soon as they stepped out the door of the escalator on their apartment floor, but this time he wasn’t able to put a finger on it. “I don’t recognize the scent...”

“You must really be behind on your feeding arc, Mark. I could smell him from a mile away. It’s Jaehyun.” Johnny sighed, walking towards the door. Mark rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with the speech he was about to get on how ‘feeding on humans would allow for his senses to go back to normal’, nor Jaehyun. 

“Why did you invite him here this late? Don’t you have work at like, eight in the morning? Hell, I don’t even care about you, but I have work in the morning. I don’t need to be kept awake for the rest of the night because you can’t keep it in your pants ‘till tomorrow.” Mark groaned, clenching his fist around the bottle in his hand, causing the plastic to cave inwards, then proceeded to throw it onto the floor. He was still thirsty… Why wasn’t the animal blood satisfying his hunger? He still felt the burning in his fangs, which only made him even more irritated than before. Although the burning sensation calmed down slightly, he still felt the unmistakable aching. “Why am I still thirsty?” Mark muttered to himself, biting down on his tongue.

“Shut up, Mark. I didn’t call him for me.” Johnny groaned, unlocking the door, revealing Jaehyun. Jaehyun looked like his normal self, dressed in way too formal attire - a pit of black skinny jeans and a silk navy blue button up shirt. Although they weren’t related, Jaehyun was much like his older brother. He didn’t have much regard for human life and was incredibly opinionated about it- which is why Johnny and him were perfect for each other. Mark was almost distracted by Jaehyun’s presence to notice that he was carrying someone on his back, whose hands fell limply by his shoulders, clearly remaining unconscious. 

Jaehyun took notice of the way Mark was looking at him with both curiosity and fear. “You called?” Jaehyun smirked. Although Mark wasn’t able to match the scent, it was painfully obvious the person Jaehyun was carrying was a human. Was he dead? Was he alive? Mark wasn’t sure enough to give a definitive answer. It was hard to get a good view of the human, due to his face being covered by a hood of what Mark assumed to be a sweater belonging to Jaehyun. 

“I didn’t call you.” Mark replied, running a hand through his blonde-streaked brown hair.

“That’s because I did.” Johnny looked over at his brother, then back to Jaehyun. “Who’s the unlucky boy then?” He lifted the hood of the sweater to reveal a boy who looked around the same age as Mark, passed out, head resting on Jaehyun’s sweater; seemingly clueless to what was happening to him. 

Mark instantly felt a wave of guilt erupt over his body the more he concentrated on the unknown boy. Eyes shut closed, messy hair covering his forehead; Mark noticed that he looked almost as if he remained in peaceful rest rather than taken by a group of vampires against his will. What were they planning to do with him? Was he dead? Did Jaehyun feed on him?

“I saw this dude passed out on the park bench, dumbass didn’t even wake up when I picked him up.” Jaehyun seemingly read Mark’s mind. Jaehyun dropped the boy to the floor, not paying much regard to the sound he made as his body came in contact with the tile. Mark’s eyes widened as he noticed the boy didn’t even flinch at the hard landing. Jaehyun noticed Mark’s reaction, laughed and looked at Johnny. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

Johnny glared at Jaehyun, then lowered himself to the ground to level with the unconscious boy, placing his tan face in the palm of his hands. In normal circumstances, Mark would’ve thought about how the boy was sort of cute. In this circumstance, he was more worried about if the boy was okay; and alive. “Well, I was going to, but now I guess not.” Mark didn’t understand what was going on between the two older boys, yet knew it must not have been any good. Was this some kind of sick joke? Were they bringing a human here to taunt him that he wasn’t able to feed on it?

“Listen, I’ve told you guys countless times not to feed in front of-” Before Mark was able to finish his sentence, he felt a sharp pain erupt in both of his temples, which caused him to lose balance on his two feet. It was almost like his center of gravity shifted upside down; knocking him to his feet.

He grabbed for the first thing in front of him to avoid falling to the floor, which was the shoe rack, but ended up taking that down with him. He was sure that if the neighbours under him weren’t awake by then, they certainly were now. The pain felt as if two molton knives were piercing his skin, both melting and piercing it. Mark tried his best not to cry out in pain; he had never felt this type of pain since the first night he turned. He felt his breathing quicken as he became more aware of the pulse that remained active in the boy slumped on the floor.

So he wasn’t dead, Mark thought. He never felt this way; almost as if he was a rabid animal with very little control of his instincts. He knew that the boy slumped next to Jaehyun had plenty of blood pumping through his veins; and no longer did animal blood seem like a viable option. His thirst shot back up, almost as if all the blood he drank in the past thirty minutes was useless. 

Stay strong, Mark thought to himself. This feeling was going to pass; it was only his High, he was going to get through it calmly. Mark repeated those words in his head as if doing so would repress his sudden spike in blood thirst. He tried, but to no avail. 

“He’s like this because he can smell the scent of a human; mixed with being stubborn as fuck.” Jaehyun said, satisfaction lacing his voice. “The fact that he’s in the peak of his high and hasn’t caved in to feed on a human is honestly both impressive and terrifying. But look at his eyes they’ve officially turned red.” 

Mark’s head shot up when Jaehyun brought up human scent. It was almost as if the moment Jaehyun had mentioned it, the scent truly hit him. Maybe it was the fact that they boy smelled sort of like a mixture of strawberries and cotton candy, or maybe it was because he was a vessel filled with fresh blood; but Mark knew it was only a matter of time before he threw away whatever morals he’d been sticking to despite his desperation to remain strong. 

Suddenly, Mark was watching his body from the outside, not being in control of his own motor abilities. He saw himself jump from the floor, towards the unconscious human.

His eyes were red.

His bloodlust peaked. 

He wasn’t able to stop himself.


	2. Knocks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much whos been reading so far!! I appreciate all your kind words :]  
> Stay safe!  
> Twitter: @hyuckified

Mark felt awful. 

In fact, if there was a word in the english dictionary that described a feeling significantly worse than what awful can portray, Mark was sure that’s what he felt. The last time he felt this bad about himself and his actions was when he saw the look on Johnny’s face when he told him he turned. It was a mixture of shame, disappointment and fear. 

Slightly dazed, Mark looked down at his hands that were now stained red. He was sound enough to presume that his hands were covered in blood from the boy that was no longer in front of him, and he felt a rush of coldness take over his senses. Once the connections were made, the guilt hit him all at once like a freight train, and he began to shake. 

While trying to process everything in front of him, he noticed that it almost felt like his fangs were vibrating, something that has never happened to him before. He placed a hand on the side of his face, almost as if cradelling it to make the pain subside. He felt a sticky liquid smear on his cheek, and he didn’t realize that he just wiped what blood that was on his hands onto his face. 

His thoughts were travelling at lightning speed, almost unable to keep up with them. Did he kill him? Was he dead? What had he done? Who was the boy? Did he know what happened?

To be honest, he didn’t remember much of the past ten minutes, but he did remember Johnny and Jaehyun prying him off of the unconscious boy, as they carried the limp body into the guest bedroom. Mark looked down at his once white shirt, which now matched the red blood pattern of that on his hands and face, Mark let out a scared yell.

He pushed himself back on the tiled floor from where he was sitting with all the force he could muster up. He didn’t stop until he hit something, no, someone. Johnny. 

“You good?” Mark didn’t know why Johnny’s voice scared him, his heart dropping to his stomach. Maybe it was because he was afraid of finding out what he had done, or maybe it was because he was afraid of their reactions to what he had done. Mark didn’t answer his older brother, but just had his eyes fixated on the spot where the boy was no longer, hoping that by some miracle, the boy would appear and he would be unharmed. Unfortunately for Mark, miracles were not that easy to come by. “You didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re wondering.” Johnny spoke softly almost as if reading his mind and bent down to be eye level with his younger brother and placing a hand on his shoulder. “He’s fine. Still breathing. Jaehyun is in the other room watching over him as he sleeps.” 

Mark felt a blanket of relief settle over his subconscious as those words rang through his ears. The boy was alive. Although that made Mark feel much better about himself, there were still some unanswered questions that he wanted to settle; even if the answer wasn’t something he was looking for. “D-Did I bite him?”

Johnny smiled, and Mark knew the answer before it was even said. “You did. I told you your phase of animal blood wouldn’t last.”

“No, no, no..” Mark muttered to himself, finding it harder to breathe and form cohesive sentences. He knew this royally fucked him over- it was common knowledge that when a vampire fed on a human, any other blood would no longer suffice. He broke his pact, he broke his morals. It was ironic, wasn’t it? That a monster had morals? “Why’d you bring him here? You knew I was in my High, this, this was a set up-”

“Dude, relax. I didn’t do this to spite you. I did it because I saw how hard this High has been for you. You were barely getting by.” Johnny rationalized, gripping his shoulders and bringing Mark up to his feet. “You need to wash up, you reek of metal.”

“You did this on purpose!” Mark exclaimed, shoving Johnny’s hands away from the grip on his shoulders, ignoring what his brother just said. Mark was angry. Furious wasn’t even the proper word to describe how angry he was. He felt tears threaten to leave his eyes, but he didn’t want to give Johnny that satisfaction. 

“Mark, I get that you’re mad now, but take a couple minutes to think about it… Now you can really hone in on all your senses, reach your full potential. Things you couldn’t do when you were on that stupid animal blood diet-”

“That’s the thing, Johnny! It’s not stupid! Ever since I was younger, you’ve always pulled shit like this! You think you know what’s best, then you run with it, and, and think that you’re the smartest of them all. S-Sure, me not feeding on humans didn’t make me the s-strongest, or, or the fastest, but it sure as hell made me happy!” 

“Happy? You’re worried about what makes you happy? You’re a vampire, Mark. Your priority isn’t happiness! It’s survival! You know, you’re really a fucking idiot!” Johnny yelled back, anger rising. Mark noticed the colour of his eyes shifted from their usual dark brown to dark yellow, a sign that his anger is rising a considerable amount. In normal situations, Mark would normally back down when he saw his brother that upset, but he was furious himself, and knew it was too late to back down. “You’re so caught up in your dumb moralities and then cry when you don’t get your way! You’re twenty years old yet act like a fucking child!”

“Bullshit! That’s what you have an issue with, Johnny. Clearly this is too fucking complicated for you to process, so let me put it in words you might understand: you fucked me over. Now I can’t go back to animal blood, all these years I taught myself tolerance for you to completely erase all my progress. You ruined it for me.” Mark didn’t even process what he was saying, just feeling the endless stream of tears falling down his heated cheeks; vision blurry enough to not see the look on his older brother’s face as he was standing in front of him. 

“Woah, what’s going on here?” Jaehyun peeked through the end of the hallway, voice laced with concern. “You’re going to wake the kid up before dawn.” Mark scoffed at the end of the sentence. Jaehyun made him even angrier. Of course their priority was the boy; never him. Mark pushed that thought out of his head, knowing that they had proper reason to care for the boy, and scolded himself for even considering the state of the boy to be unimportant. 

“Nothing.” Johnny said sternly, staring Mark directly in the eyes, not even bothering to look at Jaehyun. A slight smile found its way on his face, which sparked rage in Mark’s brown eyes. “Absolutely nothing at all.” Johnny was clearly acting insufferable on purpose, knowing he was going to get a reaction out of Mark.

“You’re such a fucking-” Mark lunged towards his brother, but Jaehyun managed to grab him just before he landed a punch on Johnny’s jaw. Mark cursed the fact that Jaehyun was much faster than him, wishing he rocked the fuck out of his older brothers face. He tried to fight against Jaehyun’s restraint, but Mark felt defeated. He was not nearly as strong as Jaehyun, there was no chance he was going to succeed. 

“Woah, woah, woah Mark. Feisty, aren’t you?” Jaehyun chuckled, shoving Mark away from Johnny, his grip kind of painful. “For a moment I thought you actually were about to punch Johnny in the face.”

“Baby, you’re kidding right? If he ever laid his hands on me, he knows I would show no mercy. Remember what happened last time, Mark?” Johnny said, crossing his hands over his chest. He knew that fight was a sore subject for his younger brother, which was why he loved to use it against him. “That didn’t end well for you, did it?”

Mark shut his mouth and clenched his fists, knowing he was going to do something he regretted if he didn’t. Instead, he shoved his feet into the first pair of shoes he saw, grabbed his jacket from the bench next to the door, and left the apartment, ignoring the calls for his name by the two older boys.

-

Mark didn’t know where he was going.

Hell, it was almost five in the morning, and he knew people were going to wake up soon and wonder why a twenty-year old boy was walking the streets of downtown Seoul with blood stained clothes and hands. He didn’t have much of a choice, though. The last place he wanted to be was home; he did not want to speak to Johnny nor Jaehyun, and he absolutely did not want to face the boy that he bit anytime soon.

He walked the streets aimlessly, down back alleys and through parks that remained vacant due to the early hour. Avoiding the puddles of water that found home on the ground due to it raining the previous morning, he found himself thinking that his loneliness was quite peaceful. Nobody was telling him what to do nor feel; his thoughts were free to roam, and so he did.

It took a couple frantic seconds of Mark thinking he was lost, before realizing he recognized the neighbourhood he was in. He took note of the corner stores that all had their doors barred up to prevent theft and was hit by a wave of reminiscent memories of how he and his old best friend Renjun used to stay up late and skateboard around the city, avoiding the police and hiding from their parents. A twinge of sadness erupted in his heart at the thought of Renjun and their old activities- he hadn’t seen him since he turned.

Johnny always told him he needed to cut contact off with the people he’d grown to love that weren’t turned like him. Due to the fact that vampires aged much slower than the average human, being able to hold a low profile without being exposed was near impossible. It took a lot of convincing and arguments to realize that he would indeed be ensuring Renjun’s safety, and that was something Mark cared about the most. 

So Mark did as he was told and just disappeared from his life. No text, no calls, no explanations. Mark ignored the countless calls, messages and voicemail Renjun left crying, begging him to explain why he wasn’t speaking to him anymore despite being friends since they were five. It was ruthless, and Mark never stopped feeling guilty for making his best friend feel like he wasn’t important enough for him, when he felt that it was indeed the opposite; Mark wasn’t important enough for Renjun to risk his life. 

Mark remembered hating Johnny for what he made him do. Not speaking to him for weeks, ignoring the countless times Johnny tried explaining why he made him cut Renjun off. Deep down, Mark knew that his older brother was right. The last thing he wanted was for Renjun to be caught up in his life, and the last thing he wanted was for Renjun to be in danger. Already, being a vampire was something that dangerous enough; but being best friends with a vampire when you’re a human was even worse. One thing goes wrong and they become a target, and Mark knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. 

It was as if Mark’s feet were controlling him, making him walk down familiar streets, covering his blood-stained white shirt with his jacket, as the zipper was jammed. He turned corners he used to sit on alongside Renjun, discussing their plans to move in together for university and hold their very own housewarming party to celebrate the move together. Of course, they never got to do that. Mark pushed those thoughts out of his mind, knowing they would make him much more emotional than he already was. 

It wasn’t until Mark was in front of Renjun’s apartment door that he realized where he’d brought himself. He stood in the hallway for he wasn’t sure how long, thoughts running through his mind on whether he should knock, or whether he should just leave. Would Renjun answer? Was he even awake at this hour? All he knew was that he needed to be comforted by his best friend. Was that selfish of him? Probably. Was that cruel? Maybe. Maybe it was the overwhelming guilt he felt for both Renjun and the unconscious boy that pushed him to take the leap, but he knocked on the door, not expecting much of an answer. 

Mark looked down at his feet, not wanting to see the face of his best friend if he did indeed open the door. He realized that he’d been walking around in Johnny’s shoes, which explained why they were big on him. He knew Johnny was going to be pissed off when he found out but to be fair, that was the least of his worries at the moment. He also made a mental note to tell Renjun that it was way too easy to get in the building, and they should probably tell their landlord to avoid bad things happening. Kind of ironic, wasn’t it? Mark was considered a bad thing, wasn’t he? 

Mark was too busy overanalyzing his thoughts and actions to notice that the door opened in front of him. When he realized that he wasn’t looking at just his feet, he whipped his head upwards, revealing Renjun, whose face was a mixture of both shock and anger. 

“Mark?” Renjun sounded heartbroken, rubbing his eyes. Mark wasn’t able to tell whether he was rubbing them because he was tired, or if it was because he was shocked to see him at his doorstep. Mark instantly felt a thousand times worse, knowing he was going to have to leave Renjun yet again. 

“Renjun, I-” Mark began to explain, eyes glossy with overflowing emotion. Renjun cut him off, not wanting to hear about it. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Renjun spat, anger replacing any sort of sadness that was found on his face seconds earlier. Mark expected this, he knew Renjun wasn’t going to embrace him with open arms. He didn’t blame him, he would not have either if he was in a similar situation. 

“I-”

“Is that blood?” Renjun interrupted him once more, anger being replaced with worry. He grabbed a hand and put it on Mark’s cheek, then pulled away; causing him to flinch. “Why do you have blood all over your clothes and face?”

It was almost as if Mark’s vocal chords were no longer functional, unable to respond to Renjun’s questions. He just remained quiet, staring at his once best friend, overwhelmed. Finally, Mark got the composure to speak, although it didn’t come out as smooth as he wanted. “C-Can I come in?”

Renjun looked like he was fighting an internal battle; and Mark knew it was about him. Was Renjun about to open his home to a person who had completely cut ties with him a year earlier? Or would he shut him out, much like he deserved. “Well, you kind of cornered me didn’t you? I don’t need people questioning why a bloody boy was leaving my apartment at five in the morning. So, I don’t have much of a choice now.”

Mark supposed he deserved those harsh words from Renjun. He nodded, not saying anything, and followed the boy inside.


End file.
